January 6th, Thursday.
In the study room, Pei Qian looked at Ma Yang, who was seriously reviewing his studies and couldn’t help but sigh.
Why could Ma Yang, a slacker, focus so intently on his studies while I can’t concentrate at all…
The exam period was approaching, and this semester was about to end.
Pei Qian had set himself a goal to pass his exams through his own efforts, but when putting it into practice, he found it somewhat difficult.
He had originally planned to invite Ma Yang to the study room to create a bit of a study atmosphere.
However, while Ma Yang had indeed found his study rhythm and was reviewing energetically, Pei Qian felt completely uninspired.
Sitting in the study room felt like an eternity.
Suddenly, Pei Qian’s phone vibrated with a message.
“Mr. Pei, we’ve developed preliminary plans for the haunted house. When would be convenient for you? I’d like to report our progress.”
Pei Qian looked at the message from Chen Kangtuo and sighed.
Ah, it’s not that I don’t want to study.
Work is just so demanding.
What should this be called?
The tree wants to be still, but the wind keeps blowing; Mr. Pei wants to study, but his employees won’t let him.
There’s no choice.
He checked the time—it was 10:30 AM—and replied: “Come to my office at 11.”
…
…
At this moment, Chen Kangtuo had already arrived at Shenhua Luxury Apartments.
He had already gone to the 16th floor, found that Mr. Pei wasn’t there, and thus sent the message.
Since he had arranged to meet Mr. Pei at 11, with nothing to do in the meantime, Chen Kangtuo decided to visit the 17th floor to see how Li Yada, Bao Xu, and the others were doing.
Arriving on the 17th floor, Chen Kangtuo found the work atmosphere highly energetic, with everyone busy.
When people saw Chen Kangtuo, many greeted him.
After exchanging pleasantries with Li Yada, Chen Kangtuo asked about GOG’s development progress.
After all, Chen Kangtuo had previously been one of the team members responsible for this game.
Li Yada said, “The progress is going quite smoothly.”
Earlier, the Dream Fulfillment Investment team offered many revision suggestions. We only implemented a small portion, but the effects were surprisingly good.”
“Based on player feedback from Slackin’ Internet Café, most players welcome this more accessible ‘simplified’ game mode.”
“So recently, we’ve been busy gradually implementing all the remaining changes.”
“Unfortunately, Dream Fulfillment Investment will soon have new assignments, so they won’t be able to playtest the game and provide more modification suggestions.”
“However, He Desheng said he’s pretty much shared all the suggestions he could think of.”
“In the coming period, our main task is to continue modifying the game’s basic mechanics according to these suggestions, create more characters, and adjust game balance.”
“The newly recruited staff are quite talented, learning game development quickly, and the overall project development efficiency has noticeably improved.”
Chen Kangtuo chatted with the Tenda Games department staff for a while, then checked the time and headed downstairs to report to Mr. Pei.
…
…
In the office, Pei Qian was reviewing the preliminary haunted house plan Chen Kangtuo had just submitted.
The haunted house was named “Anxiety Lodge.”
According to Chen Kangtuo, this name was chosen based on three considerations.
First, the haunted house contained no ghosts and didn’t promote superstition, so words like “ghost” wouldn’t appear.
Second, they hoped visitors would come multiple times for the experience, with “lodge” essentially meaning a hotel.
Finally, the haunted house’s basic setting was hotel-themed. While there would be more frightening scenes later, they would all derive from the hotel theme.
Seeing just the name, Pei Qian didn’t have any particular thoughts.
Although hotels were common in horror themes, compared to cemeteries, mental hospitals, or underworld settings, they were relatively less common.
The theme could be considered somewhat novel, or perhaps not scary enough. In any case, it would depend on the implementation.
Pei Qian continued reading.
Anxiety Lodge had three major attractions. The first was a multiplayer interactive project, and the third was a very frightening traditional haunted house experience. For both of these, there were only rough ideas without specific plans.
The second attraction, serving as a transition, did have some concrete plans.
Currently, six small projects were planned, all very simple, requiring only a few to a dozen square meters of space, limiting each experience to one person at a time.